How much does the Clean Air Act cost?

A new report by the EPA evaluates the predicted regulatory costs and benefits of implementing 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments over the next decade. The results are, well, breathtaking.

The regulations will save 2.2 million lives. The reports that they will have a positive effect of the economy that exceeds the cost of compliance.

These improvements are projected to occur because cleaner air leads to better health and productivity for American workers as well as savings on medical expenses for air-pollution related health problems.

By how much would the benefits exceed the costs, you may ask. A lot. While the regulations may cost as much as $65 billion a year, they will save nearly $2 trillion a year. Graphically:

These mind-boggling savings occur in what the EPA sees as the most reasonable set of assumptions and cost valuations. But here’s what’s even more incredible. The data crunchers say, “Even if one were to adopt the extreme assumption that air pollution has no effect on premature mortality,” the 1990 Amendment would still pay for itself more than twice over by reducing “non-fatal health effects” and improving visibility.

What’s more, the EPA laments that science has only progressed to a point of being able to quantify the health effects of particulate pollution and ozone. “[M]ost air pollution-related effects could be quantified only partially,” meaning that as models emerge to quantify how other pollutants — notably, carbon dioxide — damage our health, the savings from clean air regulations will tower even more impressively over the costs.